Environmental nanochemistry

Environmental nanoscience is the latest constellation  that has been established at our department. This activity is rapidly growing and building interfaculty collaborations, for which it has been awarded a major research grant aimed at the creation and development of a strong research environment.

The Environmental Nanochemistry group is studying environmental nanoscale processes important geochemical processes, as well as biological interactions (e.g. toxicity). In the environment there are three classes of nanomaterials; natural, unintentionally produced and manufactured nanoparticles. These three classes are important drivers of natural geochemical cycles or may impact the natural environment. The relative abundance of the three classes is varying in time and space. For example, in a pristine location there are mainly natural nanoparticles (of mineral and organic origin), while in an urban environment the unintentionally produced nanoparticles (e.g. from traffic) are highly abundant. Modelling of the technosphere has forecasted that the manufactured nanoparticles will increase in the environment with the nanotechnology development.

Nanoparticles exhibit different reactivities and properties than their larger counterparts, merely due to their small size or due to structures or properties that become important on that small scale. For example, nanoparticles surfaces are more curved, have a high abundance of edges, corners and other high-affinity sites, higher degree of atoms on the surface, higher proportion of the structure that is affected by surface relaxation, and quantum confinement of electronic transfer in semiconducting materials. These features can give rise to properties such as a higher surface potential, different pH at point of zero charge, higher binding site density, and different thermodynamic phase stability.

The same nanoscale phenomena that lend the material its fascinating properties and make them so interesting in applications (e.g. as catalysts) may also lead to adverse health or ecological effects in biological interactions. Hassellöv has set up a multidisciplinary research team with ~10 groups within GU and Chalmers, that has lead to several projects exploring how risks associated with nanomaterials can be assessed, from the fundamental natural science level all the way to the societal legislative processes and EU policy. This consortium was recently awarded a Strong Research Environment grant from FORMAS for 5 years. The group is also participating with its specific expertise on environmental nanometrology and environmental fate, behavior and transport of nanoparticles in several large international research programs (Nordic, EC, other EU, US).

The Environmental Nanochemistry group has a history of developing novel analytical tools for studies of colloidal (~natural nanomaterials) transport of metals in natural and impacted waters. It is especially the coupled Field-Flow Fractionation with Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (FFF-ICP-MS) that has been a valuable addition to the scientific community for measuring continuous elemental size distributions in the nanoscale domains. ´The group has extensive experience in working with complex, natural matrices and novel instrumentation, which has made it possible to start to address the need for development of new methods, protocols and concepts for analysis and characterization of manufactured nanomaterials in complex matrices (e.g. environmental, biological or foodstuff samples), which is today in high demand.